PRiSM92289's zigzag journal.

[PRiSM92289]

Hey,

I have decided to buckle down and create a journal for what I am currently doing.

My current stats are:

Male 16 yrs
5' 6"
147 pounds
living in Conneticut
bodyfat% ~ 20%

goal: 14%

Anyway, as of March 6th I was doing a really low cal (1400 calories/day) diet. I was loosing weight, but a lot of that was LBM. I did try to take more proteins then normal, but I still began to loose LBM. I then made a thread here:

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=755180

If you dont want to read the thread, basically everyone said because Im 16 I shouldnt eat that low since my metabolism is pretty insane right now. I should instead focus on leaning out.
And based on the replies, I have gone back to the drawing board w/ diet and even my excercise routines.

I have adapted what Zac Robinson suggested:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showpo...9&postcount=18

Here is an explanation of the zig zag diet to those who don't know:

Here is what I would suggest (if you want to get really technical):
Determine your daily caloric needs, you can get fairly close to the actual number, but there are a lot of circumstances affecting it.

Take this number and multiply by 7 (days in a week), so say your DCN is 2400 calories, multiply by 7 to get 16800. This is the number of cals you need each week to maintain.

There are 3500 cals approximately in a lb of fat, so let's say you want to lose 1 lb a week, subtract 3500 from 16800 to get 13300 cals, this is your new target number of calories.

Now remember your DCN is 2400 (in the example), now what we are going to do is add 2 cals/lb of LBM to 2400 (say your LBM is 140 lbs) add 280 to 2400 you get 2680 cals. Now for 3 days during the week, preferrably training days, you are going to eat 2680 cals, multiply this by 3 to get 8040 cals. Remember, your total cals for the week is now 13300, so subtract 8040 from 13300 to get, 5260, this is how many cals you eat on the other 4 days, so you take 5260/4 to get 1315 cals per day. So here is what it would look like for a week:
Monday workout and eat 2680
Tuesday off eat 1315
Wednesday workout eat 2680
Thursday off eat 1315
Friday workout eat 2680
Saturday light workout eat 1315
Sunday off, eat 1315

This is called the zig zag diet, the idea is that you eat below your needs (if trying to lose fat) but zig zag calories in order to keep your metabolic rate from dropping too much. If you were wanting to gain muscle, without fat, you just flip flop everything, adding 2500 cals to your weekly needs (it takes about 2500 cals to gain a lb of muscle), It works great, I did it about a year ago and went from 181 with about 15% bf to 191 with about 13% bf, the only problem is it is kind of hard to do for a long time, I got tired of figuring my calories per each meal, and doing the ratios, etc. I still employ the diet, just on a looser scale, now I have days where I eat more calories and days where I eat less, just not as strict on the numbers. To really learn more about it check out Dr. Hatfield (Dr. Squat) he has all the info. you need, and there is also an interview of him talking about it on this site.


As far as workouts go, normally I would do cardio 5-6x a day with little to no lifting. I have changed that too, and incorporating the zig zag method, this is my new system:


2500 calories ON training days
1150 calories on NON training days


Eating Clean! (or atleast trying to).
* Reps, 1 week I will do volume (3-4 sets, 12+ reps) 1 week I will do strength (4 sets, < 8 reps)

MONDAY 2500 day:
BarBell Bench
powercleans
push press
bb bent over rows

TUESDAY: 1150 day.
Cardio. Semi high intensive.

WEDSDAY: 2500 day
Squat (I actually enjoy doing squats you really feel it)
pull ups
dips (bench and chest)

THURSDAY: 1150 day
Cardio

FRIDAY 2500 day
Deadlifts
Closed Grip Bench Press
front squat
Hang Clean and Press

SATURDAY: 1150 day
Light workouts

SUNDAY: 1150 day
Rest.

cool, so Im going to log this here, since this is mainly and effort to lean out and lower bodyfat..feel free to add comments and such, I will make a concious effort to update daily

[\S/]

I'd definately like to see how much LBM you end up with from doing cardio & resting on 1150 calorie days.

[PRiSM92289]

The thing is I do cardio on the 1150 days just to decrease the gap so I can eat a little bit more, you get what im saying?

[\S/]

Originally Posted by PRiSM92289

The thing is I do cardio on the 1150 days just to decrease the gap so I can eat a little bit more, you get what im saying?

Decrease the gap from the overall weeks goal, or your daily cutting caloric goal?

I don't get it, lol.

[bicyclobutane]

this kid is an idiot
not because of his diet
because he told he lost muscle on a low cal high protein diet
therefore anything he does is stupid

[PRiSM92289]

woah ... chill butane, I did lose LBM not sure how much, but I didn't go on an all out PSMF so it was expected. I am pretty sure if I followed the rigid guidelines of a 100% protein sparing fast I would have maintaned LBM and lost fat, but it doesnt fit my schedule


and I was going to take an 1150 day, do cardio which say burns, 300 caloires. So then to compensate I could eat another 300 to make up for what I burned. Im pretty sure the difference is purely psychological, and I want to be doing something on non cutting days

[PRiSM92289]

thought id give this a bump, Ive been following it but the thing is my g-parents are vising from Australia and they are kinda annoying when i workout they just kinda stare at me, and Im thinking 'wtf GO AWAY YOU ARE CREEPING ME OUT' but out of respect I dont say anything

so now im kinda dreading workouts its like im being put on the spot light, I would talk to them about it but they take EVERYTHING the wrong way

[PRiSM92289]

I told my self I would update this if I:

1) Had time
2) messed up

Well the latter happneed yesterday when I did not meet my needed amount of proteins, and today when I ate a bunch of girl scout cookies and overshot my otherwise plan for a clean day by 500 calories